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Cover Charged

Staff Writer, FlipSidePA
Published 4:11 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2009

In case you couldn t tell, Cover Charged is from the future (the year 2176, according to them). Apparently, metal band fashion and rock star poses haven t changed in almost 200 years.
(Photo: Submitted)

You guys are an all-cover band, but with a twist: You do hardcore versions of corny pop songs ranging from *NSYNC to Cyndi Lauper to Michael Jackson. What made you decide to go the cheesy route? It started as a goof with "Toxic" from Britney Spears. We were in that getting-to-know-you phase of the band, just kicking around what we wanted to do. . . . One day I said, "You know, wouldn't it be funny to cover 'Toxic'?". . . We did it, and it just went from there.

Your MySpace page says your band is from the year 2176. Give the short version of how you ended up in 2007: All music in the future will not be on CDs. It will be digital, and as a terrorist action, terrorist detonated an EMP which wiped out all music. ... We were the only rock band left, hence we were the greatest rock band in the entire world. . . . We were playing a show when the terrorists decided to come attack us, and, at that moment when they burst in, I played a series of seven notes which had never been played before and it instantly zapped us back to 2007. Now we're searching for those notes to send us back to our original time because I don't remember what they were.

Last three albums or artists you listened to? A lot of Faith No More. I've actually been listening to Gwen Stefani a lot, looking for ideas. And, of course, the Fergie album. We just finished (work on covering) "Fergalicious."

Who is your biggest musical guilty pleasure? When we did "Bye Bye Bye" (by *NSYNC), I was talking to a buddy of mine, and I'm like, "You know the words to that song kind of hit home to me?" because at that point in my life when I was doing it, I was going through a really horrible break-up thing, and I'm looking at these words and I'm going, "Yeah, man." The words of "Bye Bye Bye" spoke to me. How weird is that?

What was the hardest song to cover in your repertoire? The hardest one thus far has been "Fergalicious." It's been our "Stairway (To Heaven)." It's been in the works probably for a month and a half, and we keep tweaking it and trying to make it more interesting.

What do you think of Alanis Morissette's recent cover of Fergie's "My Humps"? I was pissed because it was my idea! She somehow got wind of our stylings and decided to do it herself or something. It's very clever, and I wanted to be the only one who was that clever.

Since you secretly love these pop bands, who would win in a fight: *NSYNC or Backstreet Boys? I think the Backstreet Boys would probably win in a street fight just because they're from the back streets, man.